Catholic Church authorities need to distinguish between the
paedophile priest and the cleric who committed a minor indiscretion with
a teenager 30 or more years ago, according to a spokesman for the new
Association of Catholic Priests.
Father Tony Flannery said many priests who attended a meeting in Co
Mayo Tuesday afternoon sympathised with colleagues who had been excluded
from ministry even though their behaviour since the transgression had
been blameless.
The co-founder of the fledgling association was speaking following its first regional meeting in Claremorris.
He said that the 45 priests who attended spent a lot of their
gathering, which lasted two hours, debating how bishops and religious
superiors handled allegations of child abuse levelled against
colleagues.
He said there was a strong feeling that a distinction needed be made
between the paedophile, whose history involved a pattern of child abuse
and who had to be kept away from children, and the man who had behaved
inappropriately towards a teenager shortly after emerging from a
seminary three decades ago.
The question was asked at the meeting whether it was just that both
types of offenders had been publicly shamed in their parishes and
religious communities by being withdrawn from ministry.
Fr Flannery said there was also a strong feeling at the meeting that
the new association needed to help priests to minister more effectively.
SIC: RTÉ/IE